I was up bright and early this morning in order to be at the tire shop at 7:30 when the opened. When we left home I didn't think the tires were too bad but now after 4,000 more miles and having a flat I've changed my mind and decided to replace them. I was the first in line at the tire shop and was out, done and paid for in 40 minutes. Happy about that plus I get a $50 rebate for being such a good customer! Haha! Stopped by McDonalds to get Karen some breakfast and me a couple of sausage burritos. After we ate Karen decided she may need a...

We drove from Tok, AK to Squirrel State Park. Mom and Dad really liked the beautiful mountains. I played around the campground and made a dam that created "Jack Island." We visited Wrangell St. Elias Nation Park (which is 6 times bigger than Yellowstone). But the highlights of the stop were multiple cow moose with calves and SMORS. The moose every night at 9 PM sharp. I think they did on purpose so I could stay up past my bed time.

We left Tok and traveled the Alaska Highway until it intersected with the Richardson Highway (Rt. 4) that goes southeast to Valdez, Alaska. The Richardson Highway passes at least 10 of the highest peaks of Alaska including Mt. Sanford at 16,300 ft. and Mt. Drum at 12, 010. The day was absolutely perfect; about 75 degrees and generally sunny. Amazing! The mountains loom in the background- that is the only way to describe it. They are so immense and we, as tiny travelers, are so unimportant in the scheme of things. We tried to stay at Copper...

Before we left Canada, We were going to send post cards. Big surprise, it cost $1.20 plus tax for a stamp ($1.25 total)to send a post card to the U.S. from Canada. Our granddaughter was the only one to get a Canadian Post.
Back in Alaska, the border crossing was not a problem, just a few questions. Tok Junction is the first town of size along the highway. Decision time. Head north to Fairbanks, or go south. We went south. Took the Tok Cutoff to Glennallen. We saw our first moose crossing the road. It was a nice drive on a good road, the...

Well last night at 9:00 finally the sun went behind the mountain or clouds so we decided to wash the truck, yep at 9:00 pm. We didn’t get out of the campground until 10:30 and it was already up to 65 degrees. We traveled North on the Richardson Hwy, pulled over to a pull out to take a break and ran into one of the guys we went Halibut Fishing with, talked to him and his wife for a bit then headed on down the road stopping back at Groves Klutina River RVP, she had our no hookup spot still open so we decided to spend the night and do some...

Up around 8:00 Buddy made us breakfast then it’s time to fish, Buddy fished most of the day taking time for lunch and supper, I fished off and on. We had the game warden come over and talked to Buddy and two other guys, we had just found out right before he showed up that if you snag a salmon you have to release it, not only do you have to release it the game warden told us if you bring it up on shore you can still be fined $100, you have to keep it in the water and unhook it, which is not an easy task, he said he would not fine any of us...

Beginning mileage 49867
On the road again, left Anchorage at 9:30 it was 63 degrees, head down Alaska 9 to Alaska 1 N to the Glen Highway, we were looking for a nice café for lunch but ended up having Subway, and right next door was a donut shop said they were homemade so could not resist an apple fritter, oh so yummy, their didn’t seem to be much for eating along this road, however a few miles up the road after lunch we come across a couple cute little places, oh well next time. We stop in Glenallen for fuel and went into the visitor...

Sunday July 7, 2013
YEE HAH – FISH ON BABY!!!!!
We left Wrangell View around 11:30 after visiting with some of our neighbors and waiting for folks to move vehicles. There was no rush as we didn’t have far to go and check in time at our new campground is 1:00.
We arrived at Klutina Salmon Charters and Campground in Copper Center around 1:00. Reception was very friendly and we drove right to our site. This is a typical fish camp type of campground. People don’t come here expecting all the amenities, we didn’t and we don’t have them. A weak 30...

On Friday, I did a little fishing near the campground and down the river a ways. Other than that we relaxed - a real slow day.
On Saturday I hiked the mile or so down the Copper River with a couple of guys I met here to fish for sockeyes. We fished for several hours without catching a fish. We hiked back to camp to rest up for our salmon charter that afternoon.
I broke down and paid for another salmon charter, this time on the Klutina River, the river that runs by our campground. This trip would be in a rubber raft rather than the jet boat....

We moved from Valdez to Copper Center on Tuesday. We hung around the campground and met a couple of guys from Cleveland and Kalamazoo, Michigan. We planned on 3 days here mostly fishing but it turns out the second red (sockeye) salmon run is late and sockeye fishing is poor. King fishing is good, though, if you want to pay the charter fee. I scheduled a charter for Thursday afternoon.

Today I went on a salmon charter on the Copper River. The Copper is about a mile below our campground on the Klutina River. I went on the charter with the two guys from the midwest (Michigan and Ohio) that I met the day we got here. They went on a king charter on the Klutina the day we arrived and filled their limit there. The limit (as I understand it - they have some really complex regulations here and an army of Fish and Game officers to enforce them) is one fish per day and one fish per year per river with a yearly limit of 4 kings....

This morning we head out to,just haven't made a decision yet. All I know is we have to be in Denali on the first and Skagway on the the 13 of Aug. So I will fill you in later. Well we ended up only going 50 miles back to Russian river Camp. I wanted to try my luck fishing for salmon with the bears. So we took a hike down along the river to check out what was happening. Lots of people fishing and some were catching. Now to catch a salmon you have to float the hook into it's mouth. I guess it is just a lot of luck. Tomorrow morning I will...